ajp121

I KNOW THERE ARE A LOT OF BRITS IN FLORIDA IN THE VACATION RENTAL OR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BUSINESS. I WANT TO DO SAME IN S.C. AND WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR ADVICE ON HOW YOU DID IT AND WHAT CATEGORY OF VISA YOU APPLIED FOR? I HAVE THE CAPITAL TO INVEST IN SEVERAL PROPERTIES TO START A BUSINESS.

Ray

Answered elsewhere...
PS ..it cosidered rude to type all your message in caps

Joe Feise

ajp121 wrote on 05/21/07 11:01:

> I KNOW THERE ARE A LOT OF BRITS IN FLORIDA IN THE VACATION RENTAL OR
> PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BUSINESS. I WANT TO DO SAME IN S.C. AND WOULD
> REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR ADVICE ON HOW YOU DID IT AND WHAT CATEGORY OF
> VISA YOU APPLIED FOR? I HAVE THE CAPITAL TO INVEST IN SEVERAL
> PROPERTIES TO START A BUSINESS.
>


The first advice would be to *not* write in all-caps. That's considered the
online equivalent of screaming.
Your keyboard has lower-case characters. Use them.

orchidvilla

It may be rude to post in capitals but i wont be ruder in responce.

Being a villa owner and running a villa owners forum i see the good and bad and have been on the bad end of villa managment companies.
I would advise you think about this venture as it seems a lot of Brits have gone out to do this and i have had dealings with two despicable managment companies that have it seems made their duty to rip off owners and unless you are already established with a client base you will find it hard to get into.
Owners i speak to every day are getting fed up with managment companies who say they will only run a small number of villas to keep that personnel touch with owners and then get greedy and take on more than they can cope with and farm out their lawn care, pool care, cleaning and maintanance so they can sit back and do next to nothing for their money and thats how they loose the plot and start getting a bad name.
If you realy do want to try this venture then i would sugest you try and get villa owners onto your books before you actualy go out.
I know of one managment company that "sold" blocks of 30 homes to couples for stupid money and they didnt see through the crap he spoke to them.
I do think you would be brave to get into anything to do with property in Florida due to present climate of property market.

Ray

And charging 85 GBP for a weeks pool heating ...is a damn good profit ..

orchidvilla

Ray... i could get into discussions on their charges and what some pool and grass care guys do for their money, when you see them "doing their job" and what you get charged it does make you mad. See next doors guy come over race round on his mower, quick blow round the paths jump in his suv and gone, time 7.50 mins cost to owner $85. Pool guy 6 mins cost to owner $85 a month.
The normal pool heat is £10/$15 per day often guest dont put the pool cover on when not useing it so you loose so much heat that the pool heater works harder so up goes your costings, when i look at the utility bill you can near enough work it out.
If you see what it costs owners to rent out a villa to what they get in return its marginal, to rent out a villa through a travel agency is suicide.

Ray

The rentals I look after charge $70 a week cost are in the rental price ..
but I agree there no great money in it ..

scatty

Hi

I run a UK tour operator business and a Florida Property Management company

As we had a UK company my husabnd applied for an L 1 inter company transfer. I assume you do do own a uk company so you would need to apply for an E visa

The fact that you have enough capital to invest in several properties would not qualify for an E visa. If you have $500,00/$ one million to invest then would suggest EB5 . The milion dollar investment will get green card and you can invest in any area in the usa. The half million investment must be in an area of high unemployment/low growth area

Technically an E visa will not convert to a green card although Congresswoman Heather Wilson has legislation in to convert E visa from a non immigrant to immigrant visa

Property management is a 24/7 job . To get away even for a weekend is almost impossible but it does keep the wolves from the doors, hehe

There are many rules and regs including lisenses, hotel and motel, occupational etc., if you would like to chat pm your contact details

scatty

Hi

$85 per month for pool cleaning is about adverage cost. There are 4 to 5 visits in the month and have to take into account the cost of chemicals which is really high.

A van is needed , so gas, insurance, vehicle maintenance costs plus labor costs all have to be figured into costings.

Should there be a problem between cleans, eg pool goes green or pool pump packs up , then pool conmpany have to go out again at no extra cost.


If my pool guys are there for five minutes I would soon get to hear and they would get the sack. The min amount of time per visit is around 20 mins , if really dirty up to 45 mins each time

orchidvilla

Susie.... i was`waiting in for a furniture delivery when i bought my villa and i was out on my own so spent a week in my villa either reading or in my pool as i couldnt nail down the delivery only that it was to be in that week so i was only out of the villa from 1900-2300ish every night and i am sure they dont do either then and my attendance chart in my control box only showed a monthly visit, based on this and i may be wrong and appologise Susie i considerd it expensive, i knowe my lawn was never cut weekly or pool cared for weekly by my old MC Homes of America as i was sent pictures by angry neighbour at state of my lawn and pool also i had to shell out $1300 to returf as the MC let my lawn die as my new MC laid it a year ago and its still lovely and green.
A good MC is very very hard to come by and when you do find them the stress of ownership is a huge releife.

Malcolm

krizzy

I see good and bad MC while I'm in FL...I've been in my house 6 weeks and know that the MC have not been into a house for weeks on end after guests leave...and they only go in to clean just before the next guests turn up...
Every spot light was left burning 24/7 for 3 weeks...thats like burning a one bar Electric fire on every corner of the house...

orchidvilla

An owner on my forum is in dispute with MC. She has a 4 bed villa and has not had any rentals in it yet her electric bill for May and June was $400 each month, my 5 bed was $185 May and June with guests. I arranged with owners permission for another owners MC to go in and look arround, she found empty food rappers clothes and a aniversary card and the villa was a mess.
The MC who pays the bills didnt raise the high bills with the utilities company or even go round and look at why it was so high, he said he had owners with $400,500 and $600 bills...i said they must be paying them for the estate. He also lied to owner by saying after builder had left he had the villa cleaned and billed owner twice for it and said he would never rent a villa out without owners consent.... yeh right.
I know an owner sacked their old MC as they put people in a villa and when the owners brother turned up at villa there was people in, the owner called the MC to see when anyone was going in and they said no one was in or going in, the MC called the villa and said to the person in villa (and spoke top owners brother) if anyone phones the villa dont answer so he said who he was and i think there was a big brown patch at the MC office.
Dont get me wrong its not all Doom and Gloom with MC's, i had dealings with a few through my site and they have had very good reviews. Its anoying that the few let the majority down more so the dedication and comitment that has to be put into this sort of job and reputation that has to be built up.
I know there are two sides to every story, i put 12 owners onto my current MC and one asked them to clean the villa as it was a mess and then said they wont pay that sort of money so my MC said they wont take the villa on after the owner did pay.

Malcolm

fatbrit

Always highly suspicious of any poster (especially with a low post count!) circumventing peer review on a topic which is basically general advice. Smacks of salesmanship to me. Caveat emptor!

scatty

Negative, No need to be suspicious,

We have no need for any more homes. we have more than enough, thanks , but I do get sick or hearing how many owners slag off their management compaines. If they are being ripped off then they should find another management company, one that is a member of The Central Florida Property Managers Assn.

There are good ones but hard to find. I was just trying to be helpful so there you have it

I can openly recommend one to her if you prefer, not ours as we have enough but thought that would be against the rules.

krizzy

A lot of people don't know they are being ripped off that is the trouble...its also not that easy to find a good replacement once you've found out your MC is not up too the job...